307

Last time
Posted on May 27, 2016 by David M Willis

307 thoughts on “Last time”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “I got $200 cash money dollars and a GOD-TIER GRANOLA BAR. I’m set for the rest of Willis’s natural life!”

    1. Uncertainty Moth

      These next few decades might bring us through multiple in-comic weeks. You might want to bring a little more.

    2. de Combys

      Natural? So you mean he’ll be made into a cyborg afterwards?

      1. chris2315

        Or perhaps he’ll keep torturing us in his supernatural life. Like, as a ghost.

        1. pizza2004

          He’ll have just built up such a God-Tier buffer for the comic that it’ll continue for a couple years after he dies automatically before abruptly ending by chance on a big cliffhanger when someone appears to have died.

        2. Undrave

          He probably has a big cliffhanger ready in a big envolepped reading ‘In case of my death’ just so we can all go ‘DAMN YOU WILLIS!’ one last time!

        3. Dean

          He’ll take them all down with him, Egyptian pharaoh style.

        4. HeySo

          Willis draws two comics for every day- the one that goes live, and a strip where everyone dies, which only goes live if the buffer can’t find a following strip to load.

          True Story.

        5. Gareth

          I find that too believable for comfort.

        6. Mollyscribbles

          I kinda figured that he’d raise his children to carry on the legacy so that by the time he’s 80 or whatever they’ll have the writing/drawing chops to bring the characters into the summer after their first year.

        7. SgtWadeyWilson

          No matter how good the job, nobody should enforce a family business, he could offer it, but you know what they say about leading horses to water.

          That being said, it would be pretty cool if one of them followed in his more recent footsteps and carried his comic’s legacy into the somewhat distant future.

        8. chris2315

          Which in comic time is next month.

  2. Wheelpath

    Willis you are the worstest

    1. Doctor_Who

      Your blue outliney people give me unwanted feels! A pox on blue outliney people!

      1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

        Blue Outlinies are an ancient and proud people with a rich cultural tradition! Shame!

        1. de Combys

          No, they stole everything from the Red Outlinies, their culture is founded on blood of innocents 🙁

        2. Mr. Bulbmin

          It is truly a story of woe on both sides of the equation- Red and Blue Outlinies have traded death, disease, and antipathy for countless generations. Neither can be called heroic, neither can be considered truly villainous.

          Each wants what the other has, and neither wants to concede defeat. Centuries have gone by in their wars, and though the collisions betwixt the two are now limited to culture clashes and aggressive stereotyping, their fighting does not end.

        3. Silvester Crow

          But low and behold the ancient prophecy! One day, it is foretold, that the leader of the war mongering red outlinies will meet a great night of the blue outlinies, and clash swords once and for all. During this battle, the leaders will begin to feel deep emotions for each other…then it turns into a slipshine that results in the purple outlinie race.

        4. Silvester Crow

          *great knight
          Seriously auto correct, have you never heard of a knight?

        5. Andrusi

          I dunno, considering where that comment ended up, I think your autocorrect might be on to something with this “great night” stuff.

        6. Mr. Bulbmin

          A dozen internets to you both.

      2. SmilingNid

        Because before he was a crazy toe guy he was still a human.

    2. ChrisHerself

      Making us feel bad for Ross. Seriously. The worstest.

      1. SmilingNid

        He did a very bad thing repeatedly and then a incredibly bad thing but he had a better reason for losing his mind than most people.

  3. Rodimiss

    Everything important that was here is already gone.

    1. Lucena

      wow! That was so deep and so right!

    2. Cerberus

      This. So much this.

    3. Reltzik

      EXCEPT THE GRANOLA BAR! (It’s still there for the next few minutes.)

    4. Bagge

      Except for Joyce.

      And she already got her back.

  4. Charles Phipps

    My God, the weight-lifting room was full of weights!

    1. Romanticide

      were you expecting bluebeard former wives?

      1. Styx223

        Holy carp, I got that reference!

      2. Undrave

        That or stacks of gay porn…

    2. Cerberus

      Weighing down on Becky’s soul, amirite?

      I’ll… I’ll just escort myself out for that one.

      1. Mordecai

        Thanks for *lifting* my spirits a bit, things were getting pretty *heavy*.

        1. SgtWadeyWilson

          Great Scott!

        2. Falcon

          Don’t worry, we’ll get this all ironed out.

    3. Reltzik

      I’m disappointed, but yeah, it’s clearly so. There’s a barbell on the bench and a dumbell in the chair.

    4. Willoughby Chase

      You were weighting for something different?

    5. Saru

      Psh, like 80 lbs. What does a huge guy like Ross even do with that little weight? curls?

      1. DudeMyDadOwnsADealership

        Huge? Ross?

  5. Mr. Mendo

    Shame they can’t carry that barbell. Weights always come in handy! ^_^

    1. Leorale

      It’s okay, they can carry their traumas! yayyy

      1. gkheyf

        but which is heavier?

        1. de Combys

          Since you dont carry a barbell in your head 24/7, I’d say the latter.

    2. fogel

      “Boy [Girl]
      you’ve got to carry that weight
      A long time”
      [John/Paul]

      1. Historyman68

        She’s so… heavyyyyyy

        1. Clif

          Joyce: She’s my brother.

    3. showler

      Eh. Once you have enough to lead coat a set of X-01 you don’t really need to collect weights anymore.

  6. GoogerGeiger

    Hey look, I found a shred of sympathy for Ross!

    1. Doctor_Who

      Treasure it like the shiniest of Pokemon.

      1. Cacturne

        Dude, I caught a shiny Tropius yesterday.

        1. Undrave

          It’s like a beautiful mango flavored banapatosaurus…

    2. Cheshrin

      Blegh, same. It’s like the unicorn no one asked for.

      1. MM

        That’s a Faz signal if I ever heard one.

      2. JetstreamGW

        We’ll call it Blueblood.

      3. GoogerGeiger

        It’s a good thing. When you can feel both positive AND negative emotions towards any character, it means the storytelling is good.

      4. AUnicornNoOneAskedFor

        Who, what?

    3. K. Ivan Ruppert

      I have always had sympathy for Ross, I just also never thought that made anything he did right. Being redeemable doesn’t make you not need redemption.

  7. SpoopyFox

    what is this feeling?

    am i sorry for toedad???

    1. Bicycle Bill

      Remember that no matter how big an asshole someone is/was, someone loved him/her at one time in their life.

      1. a4lbi

        One could hope.

    2. Viktoria

      I am sorry he lost his wife. I also want him locked in a small box with a lot of rats for what he did to his daughter and her friends. A shitty life is no excuse for hurting other people.

      1. de Combys

        Well, that’s not true. It is very well a legetimate excuse, or else it wouldn’t be a symptom in so many psychologic/psychiatric illnesses which a strong environmental factor.

        That being said, of course you need to enforce responsabilisation, which is probably the most crucial part in profound paradigmatic and behavioral change, and of course you need to exclude from society people who are dangerous to the lives of other people, but that’s another issue.

        1. Wendy

          I wouldn’t call it an excuse. It’s a reason, and it’s understandable, but a reason is not an excuse, and understandability isn’t justification.

          …I’m pretty sure “understandability” isn’t a word, but y’all know what I mean.

        2. Freemage

          Well said.

          I can even feel sympathy for his obvious pain here, even while being appalled at his later actions.

        3. de Combys

          I think we’re on the same page, the rest is terminology.

      2. Cerberus

        Yeah, this.

        I’m not overflowing with empathy for fuckheads who push reparative therapy bullshit.

        Dead wives or not.

        1. Leorale

          Oh, good, I was afraid I was some kind of monster for feeling absolutely nothing for these past couple strips.

      3. sjmcc13

        If he statements about his faith did not make me think he would have tried to pray the cancer away, like he was going to try an pray the gay out of Becky, I might feel more for him.

        But from what information we have about him. He almost certainly made his wife’s cancer, and lets face it her entire life from the day they were married and she became his “property” (according to his faith), worse. ToeDad probably treated it as an attack on his faith or a test for him by god, and ignored what his wife was going through herself. She was probably slowly building up to a crisis of faith as why would god give her cancer and put her through that suffering she can not bear if he loved her. This could have easily lead to the previous comic.

        1. Amazi-Stool

          Which cancer?
          The cancer is spreading like a disease (ha!) in the fanon, but it never was part of the story!

          (Unless you are talking about Dana’s mother).

    3. ChrisHerself

      What is this feeling, so sudden and new?
      I felt it the moment I laid eyes on you
      My pulse is rushing
      My head is reeling
      My face is flushing
      What is this feeling?
      Fervid as a flame, does it have a name?
      Yes!
      LOATHING
      UNADULTERATED LOATHING

    4. Spencer

      It’s not that weird. We’re seeing him reacting to the death of his wife.

      I sympathize with Ruth. Her parents were killed by a drunk driver, she spiraled into alcoholism, her grandfather verbally abuses her over the phone and she has crippling depression and suicidal ideation weighing her down. Also she’s kind of a shithead and I mostly just want to drop an elephant on her. I also have a huge amount of empathy for Amber and find the constant stream of “god this mentally ill abuse victim is such a piece of shit for yelling at danny and pushing him away” hella frustrating, but it’s not like I don’t get why people think that now because she acted like an Amazi-Bongo to him.

      1. Nyzer

        Ruth and Amber both try to better themselves despite everything, though, which at least makes them understandable. They’re pretty shitty people but they at least know it.

        Toedad went headlong into zealotry and didn’t even glance back when his daughter confronted him while he was chained to his hospital bed. He didn’t even throw out the mildly understandable “I don’t care what happens to me, but you’re on a path of darkness, you need to turn back, I beg you” line which would have shown far more care for Becky as a fellow human even if it was warped by his beliefs.
        No, his parting words to her were “you ruined this family”. With everything laid bare and all his machinations foiled, he chose to express contempt instead of making a plea to try to get her to “save” herself. Inexcusable no matter how deep into that rabbit hole he was.

        Ruth’s perspective was understandable, once we finally learned what it was. She turned herself around once she finally got over the fact that Billie wasn’t the drunk driving selfish maniac she built her up to be.
        Amber’s inability to deal with people properly is also understandable, even if the behavior is unacceptable (especially since she herself knows this). Amber hasn’t turned herself around, but it’s pretty obvious that she’s simply not capable of doing so yet – and she IS making progress in small increments. She went from seeking Sal out, to leaving her alone, to being able to talk to her face-to-face without (physically) fighting. From panicking and fleeing upon unexpectedly seeing her to just switching to the Amazi-Girl identity instantly.

        Hell, even Blaine’s almost more understandable than Toedad. In the flashbacks he was trying to push Amber into getting a backbone, failing to realize he was the cause of her inability to deal with people. In the present he’s acted out of spite because he believed he had the right to dictate how “his” money was being spent.

        But Toedad who supposedly actually did love his family, cutting his daughter down in their final interaction? No. He’s just as self-centered as Blaine, but he’s trying to hide it under a level of self-righteousness even THAT asshole hasn’t sunk to.

        1. Spencer

          I mean, I think “they’re shitty but at least they know it” is really the wrong way to look at it, because it’s coming at it from the perspective of “these two are garbage and broken and terrible and need to earn their not-shit certification before they’re allowed to be happy.”

          Like, this is really the first time we’ve ever seen Amber ever do or say anything that I could really classify as abusive (yes I’m including the table flipping and almost swearing at Danny in that. Momentarily losing control and immediately doubling over in guilt does not an abuser make), and that was still the Amazi-Girl alter saying that, acting towards Danny in a way that Amber started to self abuse over when she pulled something not even half as bad. She’s built up a narrative in her head where Amber is shitty and worthless, Amazi-Girl is the one who matters and deserves the nice boyfriend and the love and respect of the dorm, Sal is the Joker and any action she takes is in service to some dastardly plan, and trying to stop her mission is ultimate betrayal. And I wouldn’t really call immediately and involuntarily becoming Amazi-Girl progress; to me it seems like Amber’s reached a point where she’s full on dissociating, and I feel the way both alters react to treating Danny poorly is proof of that.

          Hell, for as much as I dislike Ruth, and goddamn do I dislike Ruth, well, even she doesn’t fit in that criteria. Yeah she fucked up big time with Billie, she pulled a lot of really unacceptable, fundamentally unforgivable bullshit on her, but, I mean, she is trying. Since losing Billie as her target she’s largely directed all her hatred towards herself, and she’s trying to shape up despite fucking up so much, and she’s starting to become cognizant of the idea that maybe happiness is a thing she’s allowed to have.

        2. Sophia

          “Momentarily losing control and immediately doubling over in guilt does not an abuser make”

          Gotta disagree with you there. If your loss of control involves abusing people, feeling bad about it after doesn’t negate that it was abuse. I believe 100% that my uncle felt genuinely sorry/guilty after hitting my aunt those times he lost his temper. But he still lost his temper and still hit his wife. Verbal abuse is similar. Someone still had to deal with your (general “you”) horrific shit, even if you didn’t mean it and are sorry afterward.

        3. Spencer

          I mean, I think there’s a difference between a single act you feel guilt over, and repeat trend of hitting someone. Joyce isn’t an abuser because she flipped her shit on Sarah and told her she was only trying to get rid of Becky like she did Dana. You and I have both gotten angry and said and done stupid hurtful shit to deal with that anger because that’s just how people are.

          To this day I still have immense difficulty dealing with anger, because I spent my entire adolescence is a completely bullshit situation I didn’t deserve and my main way of dealing with that is bottling it up until it fucking explodes or just letting it seethe. I’ve screamed at my loved ones. I’ve punched furniture. I learned that trying to repress this shit is the way you deal with your problems because I’m too shitty and worthless to burden other people. I still have it in the back of my head that if I ever open myself up to someone or have kids, I’m definitely absolutely going to kick the shit out of them because that’s just what I’m expected to do unless I’ve learned not to be abusive.

          Fuck that shit. I’m not an abuser. I know a bunch of folks would rather write me off as Damaged Goods in the Cycle of Abuse, but I’m not an abuser. I’m allowed to get angry at shit without it meaning I’m succumbing to my inherent vileness as a person. I deserve to be happy without spending the rest of my fucking life double checking to make sure I’m not about to hurt someone.

  8. Kingmabel

    “On second thought, I can totally stay in my old house for a bit longer. The random bits of trauma are really refreshing.”

    1. Dara

      ding ding ding ding winnah

  9. Jupiterror

    Toedad is toesad 🙁

    1. lejwocky

      hahah

    2. Needfuldoer

      Then he went toemad.

    3. ChrisHerself

      Then things got SoBad.

  10. Elsendor

    Damn you Willis T_T

  11. Kernanator

    Well at least Becky is singing about how she wants to burn it all down.

    1. Kernanator

      ISN’T, I MEANT ISN’T.

      1. Leorale

        TOO LATE

        1. Reltzik

          I hear a rage filk coming /
          I sense arson on its way /
          I smell gasoline a’lighting /
          I see rad flames today

        2. Bagge

          AWESOME!!!

        3. SundaesChild

          https://youtu.be/u06DpcFXc4U

      2. Haven

        Too late. Becky decided that as long as her friend was worried about committing a crime, they might as well get it over with.

        1. Doctor_Who

          “Hey, the sentences for arson aren’t too much worse than for grand larceny, and I already ate that granola bar, so why not?”

      3. Leorale

        Burn it down, burn it down
        Let’s torch this fundie town
        Burn it down, burn it dow-own
        They’ll never see me frown

        Here I stand;
        Everyone, I’m gayyy!
        Let the storm rage on
        the feels never bothered me anyway

        1. Bagge

          Awesome!!!

        2. Bagge

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bikl9-OPPmA

        3. Bagge

          Seriously, I’m surprised Becky kept it together when they watched Frozen. That movie must have pressed A LOT of buttons for her, and I don’t only mean the open door thing.

        4. HMRC4EVR

          Hey oh!

      4. Needfuldoer

        We don’t need no water, let the motherfarter burn!

    2. Doctor_Who

      Had to scroll back up and see if I missed something crucial.

    3. Dara

      See, I was about to go, “wait a minute, we can’t leave yet, this place isn’t on fire!”

      1. Cerberus

        “We don’t need no water, let the motherfucker burn. Burn, motherfucker. Burn.”

        1. Reltzik

          If you’re worried about water putting out your fire, you didn’t salt the house with enough elemental sodium, and that just proves you aren’t playing to win.

          … also, don’t do this, the firefighters don’t deserve that crap.

          …. also, don’t burn down houses in the first place.

        2. Kamino Neko

          Don’t be an arsonhole.

        3. Dara

          You mean like Arson Scott Card?

          Good advice.

    4. Carms

      I can see Becky being into p!nk

    5. Smiling Cat

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKCccyZvtIo

  12. Spidergirl

    I feel a twinge of sadness for Toedad.
    … Aaaand it’s gone. Man, fuck that guy.

  13. Palamdrone

    No trigger warning for a picture of a grown man crying? Shame

    1. GoogerGeiger

      LMAO GONNA NEED SOME CATS FOR THIS ONE

      1. Cerberus

        Middle finger extending…

        Middle finger deployed.

        (ha ha, joking about trigger warnings surely won’t make us look like overprivileged assholes who mistake a lack of trauma for strength)

        1. Palamdrone

          You misunderstand. I joke about trigger warnings to make me look like an overprivileged asshole.

        2. Cerberus

          Ah irony joking. My bad.

          All the real deals a day or two ago has my sarcasm-detecters a little dimmed on this one.

  14. Stephen R. Bierce

    This could be the Last Time/This could be the Last Time/Maybe the Last Time/I don’t know/Oh no…

    1. caesaria82

      For some reason this made me sing ‘This will be the last time I ever do your hair’ from ‘Laura’ by Scissor Sisters, which I’m sure you were not going for lmao.

      But there’s a hair theme going on maybe? Yeah… I got nothin’ xD

      1. Mandy

        Oh my god I LOVE the Scissor Sisters!

  15. Sionyx

    Man. Ross may be quite the asshole (and not in the we-like-him-anyway way Mike has), but he looks so SHATTERED in that last panel. So much implied behind the scenes on maybe how he ended up the way he is.

    1. GoogerGeiger

      I can absolutely believe it. Furthermore, we don’t even know what the situation was with Becky’s mom. Maybe it was an abusive marriage. Or maybe she simply had clinical depression and suicidal tendencies, and instead of blaming himself for not being able to help his poor wife (which hurts even more), he made himself believe her faith wasn’t strong enough.

      1. Idontcarenomore

        Somewhere in the files it was said that she died of cancer. I got a feeling, based on Toedad’s treatment of his daughter, the chances of it being an abusive marriage are pretty high.

        And if she did have cancer- having watched my father, brother, stepfather and best friend die of various types of cancer….taking the faster way out is not as awful as some may think.

        It is the way I would chose if put in that position.

        1. Sionyx

          She could have had cancer. One of my great-aunts had cancer, it got BAD, and she committed suicide rather than live with the illness. The trigger warning is ATTEMPTED suicide, too, so Becky might have found Bonnie in time.

          And to clarify my How Ross Got That Way, Maybe statement, from what Hank says about not really liking Ross in the first place, yep, Ross was probably not the best person before the tragedy hit. I was referring to why he’s so intent on keeping His Daughter Becky with him and on the Right Path – couldn’t keep his wife, but will do his darndest to keep his daughter. Understandable reaction, but run that through being an asshole and the type of religious views he has…You end up with jail time.

        2. Anonononon

          As awful as the Toe is, even Becky was shocked that he was acting so violent when he came with the gun. If anything he probably was just a loudmouth as is actually typical for these type of bigots. Just look at Archie Bunker.

        3. BenRG

          That’s an interesting insight there. I’m wondering if Ross’s trial might end up with his lawyer making an insanity plea if his behaviour can be shown to have become extremely abnormal.

        4. Bizze

          I’m not a legal expert, but I do know a bit about this in particular – Ross (or his lawyer) would generally have to prove he was actually suffering from a form of psychosis, and to do that, he’d have to prove he was suffering from a mental illness that can cause it; otherwise it’s just his word that he didn’t know what he was doing. He couldn’t just say “I was driven mad temporarily by grief!”

          Well, he could, but that’s incredibly unlikely to work on a jury. Ross is also far too convinced of his own righteousness to try to argue that he didn’t know what he was trying to do. And even if he successfully pleaded insanity, he’d have to be committed (probably) to a mental institution for a time, and it’d play havoc with his life – you can’t claim you’re legally not responsible for your actions and then later do things you need to be legally responsible for (like, say, owning a house, car, guns…)

        5. anonymsly

          From what I remember of my law classes (as part of business school, so watered down quite a lot) there’s a distinct difference between legal insanity and clinical insanity.

          If I’m remembering correctly, for legal insanity, all that would have to be proven is that Ross didn’t know what he was doing was wrong or that he had no appropriate distinction between right and wrong. And a lawyer might try to play this, because Ross IS so self-righteous that he would be able to give the impression that he thoroughly felt that what he was doing was Right and Justified and Not Illegal At All. How could it be illegal, when he was trying to save his daughter from evil?

          However! I’m pretty sure it would also be proved quite handily that he DID know what he was doing was illegal and wrong, at least in terms of the actions he took – gun on campus, assault, kidnapping, fleeing the police etc. The simple fact that he regarded it all as a sacrifice he was called to make means that he knows it was wrong and accepted it as such.

          So yeah, insanity is a nonstarter regardless.

        6. segnosaur

          There is one other issue with him pleading insanity… on average, people who use the insanity plea spend [i]twice[/i] as long locked up as do those who just go to jail.

          Its not the ‘get out of jail free’ card that the movies make it seem like.

    2. Carms

      Pretty sure he was always relatively terrible, but terrible people are still people. Important to remember. Even Boko haram peeps experience tragedy.

  16. Leorale

    I know it’s not her style, but, I kinda wish they’d snag a blanket or a photo album… or, y’know, look for more cash and rob him blind. Maybe I’m just mad.

    1. Marie

      Yeah, I was expecting she’d want, I dunno, something from her room? Or a photo of her mom? (one of those might be in her bags retrieved from Anderson though)

      1. Cerberus

        I dunno. Speaking from personal experience, I was glad to have nothing to remind me of home when shit went down and happily got rid of the last remaining photos of family. Cause once it was tainted in that way, there was nothing but pain in looking at those old family photos.

        1. Leorale

          Yes, I’ve known it to go either way, and Becky’s style is clearly more like yours, starting over completely fresh. (They probably weren’t all that materialistic in the first place, either, as Becky doesn’t seem attached to any particular clothes and so on.)
          But, why not rob him?

        2. Cerberus

          Too much time to spend with awful stuff, plus it makes the mission feel different. Grabbing $200 in cash and a granola bar is a bit different than knowingly stripping off everything that can be pawned. Plus, it’s a lot easier to run if needed if they have cash and granola rather than if they were carrying a stereo or a computer with them.

        3. Leorale

          True, that does make emotional sense. I’ll have to find another expression for my sense of Robin Hood justice.

        4. Cerberus

          Well, I mean, that’s just probably where this troupe stands on it. I don’t think I could fault a recently homeless queer youth thrown out of their home coming back and ransacking their home for anything not nailed down.

        5. Tan

          I would say if there is any more cash to find, grab that. Cash is relatively untraceable (outside of EXTREMELY high amounts), as opposed to a stereo (for example) which can potentially be proven to have been owned by Toedad and now missing, can potentially be proved to be either in Becky’s possession or having been sold by Becky, and can potentially be identified as the same stereo as the missing one.

          (note: this is one of several reasons one should generally keep one’s cash in a bank, not stashed under one’s mattress)

        6. LWS

          Yes, had a friend who bolted home at age 14 and never looked back. Never said exactly why but cut all ties with his family. No one from his family was at his wedding; he’s now in his 50’s and AFAIK still has no contact with them.

    2. Mandy

      Yeah, same. Maybe it just makes me a hoarder, but I’ve got quite a few items that hold incredibly sentimental value that I’ve had my whole life. If I ever had to leave my home forever there’s definitely some stuff I’d want to take.

      But, like other people have said, maybe any items from Becky’s past will just remind her of her parents, neither of which will invoke any happy memories.

  17. Rosicrucian

    I find watching Becky’s hair lengths in the flashbacks interesting, considering her dad’s attitude towards it.

    1. Fran

      Yeah, maybe Word of God can add more to the subject

  18. Lord Stoneheart

    So Toedad seems like he did consistently skip leg day.

    (Yeah, I don’t have anything insightful to add)

    1. magicallady

      he couldve worked less on his legs than his arms

    2. GoogerGeiger

      But did he skip Toe Day?

      1. magicallady

        toe day is pointless so everyone skips it!

  19. magicallady

    goodbye that house

  20. timemonkey

    At least steal some pillows, you can never have enough.

  21. Architex

    “Joyce, spot me.”

  22. cybik

    Yeaaaap that’s PTSD

    1. Cerberus

      PTSD, barrels of fun. The gift that keeps on giving… forever.

    2. ailorn

      not necessarily. She isn’t having flashbacks (like Amber) but rather having memories. Flashbacks feel like you are reliving a traumatic situation and it flashes before your eyes. My interpretation of Becky’s blue memories is that they are memory remnants of walking through the house. They can be bittersweet, happy or whatever. It was interesting seeing the progression of her memories from happy early memories to more painful ones.

    3. Opus the Poet

      Another “present” I got from the DOD in my childhood. I can spot it miles away now.

  23. Saxa

    Stop the feels train pls.

  24. JessWitt

    Phew, this night will end without police-enforced incident. *knock on wood*

    1. MM

      Night’s not over just yet.

  25. miados

    she has her papers and joyce. the only things in the house she needs.

  26. Guairdean

    Looks like suicide is the more likely cause of Bonnie’s death. I hope Becky realizes she now has the support group she truly needs.

    1. Idontcarenomore

      Cancer said earlier files, so makes sense to me that she committed suicide.

      (I said above: my dad, stepdad, brother, and best friend died of various kinds of cancer).

      Took my dad and brother 3 years to die, while undergoing radiation, chemo, etc. My stepdad only 6 months. My best friend died a horrible death at the end of her 5 year battle.

      Suicide is called a coward’s way out, I agree mostly. But not always.

      1. DinaWho

        The ‘cancer’ statement is actually erroneous. As far as I can tell, it results from a confusion of Bonnie with Dana’s mother (who died of breast cancer), that occurred around the time it was first revealed Bonnie had died, and which since became a widespread theory in the comments.

        That said, the current sequence of comics so far has neither jossed nor confirmed that.

      2. Kryss LaBryn

        Oh, man, a friend’s dad recently died of cancer, and it was a painful, horrible death. But the worst part was, it was terminal, he slipped away peacefully, there was a Do Not Revive order on his chart, he was even at home(!)–and they revived him anyways. Saved him from an easy death to give him a much, much worse one, dying a couple of months later screaming in agony. The fucking bastards. My friend was so (extremely justifiably) pissed.

        There are worse things than death, and sometimes a good death is all you have left. Don’t fucking take that away from people who are terminal and in pain, you fuckers.

        1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          I am going to make a PSA moment here and note that this sort of thing is why you really need to have your legal paperwork in order. No matter how young and healthy you are.

          (not saying it was a factor in the case above.)

          My siblings and I have spent the spent the past few years managing the decline and passing of our parents, and having health care powers of attorney and living wills made it less difficult and painful then it could have been.

          ObDoA: I am sure it is even more important if you are on bad terms with some or all of your family.

        2. Guairdean Beatha

          A friend’s mother suffered the same fate. When my friend asked the doctor why he went against the DNR order, the response was an emotionless “No one has been sued for not letting someone die.” No concern for the quality of life for the patient, just a little nod to the legal department before tee time.

  27. TheStranger

    So…clothes are a no, then? Or is she already set on that front?

    1. Reltzik

      Her clothes were all at Anderson, and Anderson was quite happy to return her property to her out of morbid embarrassment at her failed Mission Impossible routine.

      1. Needfuldoer

        I like to think it went something like this.

  28. Foxhack

    I… I don’t think you can put that window back into place.

    At least, not without a bunch of duct tape.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      If Toedad is a survivalist, there’ll have to be a huge stash of duct tape around somewhere.

      1. inqntrol

        Duct tape: solving mankind’s problems since…since…hold on got to look up when it was created.

        1. inqntrol

          Huh, it was created during WW2, to keep the moisture out of the ammunition cases.

        2. Needfuldoer

          And despite the name it’s lousy on ductwork! (That’s what aluminum foil tape is for.)

          For general temporary fixes, gaffer’s tape is ten times better than duct tape. You can leave that stuff in place for months and it will come up clean.

        3. heyman

          EB Green for permanent fixes!

  29. kkiten

    Take your clothes and diaries at least?

    1. Leorale

      Unless she can bring herself to ask Joyce to hold onto her stuff, she hasn’t got a way to store it. It might be more her style to walk away and start fresh.

  30. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    You can’t go home again.

    1. jhennaside

      Totally…

      I could share a personal story, but meh- it’s never the same.

  31. chris73

    No squat rack so definitely not interested in working the legs properly

  32. TheOtherTheDoctor

    I’m still a bit confused. The comic the other day referred to an “attempted suicide” in the trigger warning, but Becky’s mom is dead, right? I guess I’m wondering if there is a definitive answer to whether Bonnie did, in fact, die, and, if so, how.

    1. kelticat

      There’s a theory that she completed the attempt with a gun.

      1. Cerberus

        This. Either the attempt was completed and the trigger warning was just being a little vague or that was only attempt number one.

        1. Gordon

          Alternatively, overdose is a hard thing to get “right” during a suicide attempt. It’s possible Bonnie wound up in a coma and Toedad had to make a decision about “long term care.”

    2. tim gueguen

      WoW(Word of Willis) is that she is dead, but the cause of death has not been revealed.

    3. skdk

      just because theyre sad doesnt mean that she died. this could be right after they came home from the hospital, right after the ambulance came to get her and didnt let them follow and told them to wait for a call, a long time after they came home from the hospital, or a short or long time after she died of cancer. the thing is, theyre not crying hysterically which i would do if someone died, so ill guess theyre just very sad and concerned because theyve just found out about the moms (sorry im bad with names) situation which is either suicidal, having cancer, both or maybe they found out she had cancer before. maybe she for some reason remained unconcious for a while and they dont know if she will wake up? there sre many many ways to interpret the last panel other than “she died because of the suicide”

    4. heyman

      If she made an unsuccessful attempt- I can understand, I had cancer and some sleepless nights- Toedad may have prevented any more attempts, since suicide is a big sin.

  33. Matt_M

    All these comments and no one is acknowledging the “Dirty Work” reference. Shame on you youngsters.

  34. stargrabber5

    Wow, this part has made Becky one of my fave characters. She’s so strong (smiling when so much around her could make her sad).

    1. Cerberus

      Becky is incredible. Her world shattered around her, but she has fought tooth and nail to try and claw back a semblance of her life again and refused to ever give up and be bullied back into the closet. She’s got a lot more strength than most 18 year olds and I hope she can get a confidante to help her process the massive wave of emotions I know she is repressing right now.

  35. jhennaside

    So… so ToeDad was once not a toe?

    1. inqntrol

      But he was still a a href=”http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/eatmoar/” rel=”nofollow”>bigot.

      1. inqntrol

        Crap.
        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/eatmoar/

    2. Dean

      He was once a small toe, now he’s a big toe.

  36. Spidergirl

    Probably inappropriate, but Jocelyne kinda sounds like a video game character just before you embark on a dangerous part of the game here.

    1. Portmanteaust

      Knew I wasn’t the only one thinking this. I can’t help but imagine her following up with “And remember, you can always press B to scan for hidden items”.

  37. caesaria82

    This whole storyline is… a lot. But I’m glad it exists <3

    1. Cerberus

      *hugs*

  38. Bemmie

    hmm, common theme in DoA and It’s Walky right now….

    Parents can be such Dead Weights…

    Sorry… so so sorry…

  39. Cholma

    Damn, J&J! ONE of you please suggest she pack a suitcase! Now’s her chance to get some clothes and any personal items still in her room. You obviously don’t recognize it, but Becky’s not in the proper frame of mind right now. She needs you to make the rational choices.

    1. Idontcarenomore

      Excellent idea.
      And as someone above said, maybe a photo album, a keepsake of her moms?

      1. Dean

        For all we know, Becky took all of the clothes and personal items she wanted off to Anderson with her.

        1. Cerberus

          This. Becky got the clothes she wanted from Anderson as well as the photos that were important enough for her to take to college. Anything still left behind was stuff that wasn’t important enough to take the first time she left.

        2. Cholma

          Not really. She expected that she’d come home from college. She wasn’t leaving forever; or so she thought. For example, I doubt she brought Winter clothes with her, expecting she would pick those up during Thanksgiving break or something, because who thinks of packing Winter clothes in August?

        3. Cerberus

          True, but I think the loss of some thing’s like that are acceptable losses for her.

        4. John

          When I was as far into my first semester of college as the DoA kids are now, we’d already had snow.

          Indiana’s not Vermont a quarter-century of global warming ago, but I still wouldn’t want to bet on making it through to late November without needing a coat. And Becky has neither driver’s license or car. She couldn’t just run home to grab whatever she suddenly discovered she needs.

        5. Amazi-Stool

          That doesn’t look like snow too me!

          We’re at the end of week five. Early October, but not late November.

        6. Amazi-Stool

          Hups! You are the guy with the timeline, so why am i trying to explain this to you?

        7. John

          It’s early October now, but Cholma was talking about holding off until Thanksgiving break – late November for everyone but Ruth – to get winter clothes.

          My freshman year, we got an inch or so of snow on the 18th of September.

          Becky kind of strikes me as the sort of person who wears shorts and a parka in the snow, though.

        8. figureaddict

          Doubt it, dorms arn’t that big, and I bet she didn’t think she would never step foot in her home again when she left for college.

        9. Chris

          When they kicked her out, they wouldn’t have kept her clothes and other things. Since she didn’t have them when she showed up to see Joyce it is reasonable to assume that the ended up in toedad’s possession. Depending on the timing they would either be in the trunk when he came for her or here at the house.

          If they were in the car, she would have been able to get them then and it doesn’t appear that she did.

        10. thejeff

          She’s actually been back to Anderson to pick up some of her stuff.
          Mission Impossible-style

          I’d guess she ran off right when Ross came to pick her up, before they’d gotten her stuff packed up. He probably started looking for her rather than collecting her stuff and they hadn’t cleaned out the room yet, since it had only been a few days.

  40. AgentKeen

    -Do you want to read the Bible?
    -It doesn’t have to be the Bible…

    –Go away, Becky!

    -Okay….

  41. Skizz

    I was a little surprised not to see a “For Sale” sign outside the house. I imagine Toedad is gonna need some change.

    How long has it been since his arrest?

    1. AgentKeen

      A week or less?

      1. Skizz

        Is that all? Then the four or five years toedad is likely to spend in jail (always providing he doesn’t just get probabation) covers a good long time. Hope he has some equity.

  42. Cerberus

    Comic Analysis:

    Panel 1: Jocelyne has got this shit on lock and is definitely the big sis Becky needs to help her know how to direct her boundless enthusiasm towards the goals she wants to meet.

    Panel 2: ;n; No, no, just something in my eye.

    Becky is at her limits being here, being so face to face with that which evokes these bad memories the most. She’s wanted to burn this place to the ground and jet from before she even got here and now? Now she’s 120% done.

    And I’m so proud of her, because this is the first time she’s expressed a desire in favor of something that’s positive for her mental health. Everything else she’s trying to bottle down feelings and play happy for everyone else or she’s trying to sacrifice for others or push herself to her very limits.

    But here? She’s done and she expresses that. She muses on what option would be better for her mental health but perhaps not be the most optimal in her not having to rely on other people (because she’ll need to take a slightly longer time pulling together her remaining documents). And as we see in the final panel, she actually values that option this time. And it’s such an important moment, because not pushing herself every time to do the more traumatizing and painful action will make dealing with the landslide of shit she’s been dealing with so much less awful.

    Panel 3: Oh man, there’s so much in Jocelyne’s eye scrunch here.

    Like on the surface, there’s so much empathy. I think she might have noticed that Becky turns up the wacky when she’s in distress and that this trip home has been the opposite of easy for her. And she values that. She states the reality, but she doesn’t push something toxic to Becky’s mental health (she’s not saying, no, we can’t leave until we find your SS card or anything like that).

    But then, there’s also the hesitation. Jocelyne and Becky are like two sides of the same family disownment coin. Becky accepts the reality of her lack of a family fully and is ready to fully burn her past and never look back and that versatility gives her strength. But Jocelyne? Jocelyne is a planner. Jocelyne holds her cards tightly to her chest until she’s sure she’s dotted every i and crossed every t.

    And unlike Becky, Jocelyne hasn’t fully lost her love of home and her past life. She probably does have in mind personal records and belongings she’s planning to pick up when next she works up the courage to ask her parents for them. If their situations were reversed, she might linger a bit longer in her room with some of her old photos, figuring out which ones she’d want to keep.

    But Becky is on the other end of familial betrayal and knows the keepsakes just make you cry and all are tainted with ugly memories and so much hurt. She knows that it’s far more worthy to get away from all this awful and restart than to hold on to a past that never really was.

    And that’s really the fundamental difference between them. Jocelyne thinks of home and “the last time you’ll ever see it” and feels sadness. Becky thinks of home and “the last time you’ll ever see it” as a hopeful promise. Like, really? You promise I’ll never have to see it. That I can be done with this prison and live my life? Sign me the fuck up.

    Panel 4: Steel the courage, strike the match, burn it down. Becky is done being haunted. And for once, she values her mental health. And that means she’s taking a very important step towards recovery from all the trauma she’s been snorting this last week.

    Panel 5: Becky, small in a room, but not alone. She’s leaving. She’s even smiling a little. Because she may be small in a room, but the house can be small in her mind. All its ghosts, the pain of them may follow her, but they’ll never be louder than right now and now she has no reason to ever come back to this cage again.

    Also, interesting that hiding outside the door Becky has the college haircut now while Toedad looks to be in the despair after his wife has died. I think Becky might have actually shorn her hair short after her mom died, maybe so that her reflection in the mirror didn’t remind her so much of her mom. And I think Toedad was forcing her to grow it out again making his comment about the hair in the car when he was kidnapping her a “stern reminder” in his eyes. Like, once again you defy me by cutting your hair short? After I already chastised you once before? Clearly you have been out of control since your female role model kille- was stolen by Satan.

    Also, total speculation, but looking at her legs, that’s an odd position.

    Like she’s not in a spy position, she looks more knocked back against the wall and it doesn’t even look fully like a depressed slump, because her leg is kinda at an awkward angle…

    And the door to the room she is forbidden from is open and Toedad is looking sad and contrite over pictures of his wife and some sort of paperwork on his knee…

    I’m wondering if maybe he struck her in his grief for some betrayal (like sneaking into the forbidden room or maybe speaking out of turn about the circumstances of her death) and now she’s just staying slumped there while he collapses with maybe the death certificate paperwork for Bonnie.

    I dunno, her pose doesn’t look fully natural and I’m suspecting there’s some significance to that.

    1. Bagge

      Becky and Joycelyne are just so AWESOME, and you caught the contrast between them spot on. Becky is leaving. Jocelyne is not sure she is quite there yet.

      Not entirely unlike Ethan and Becky back here
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/respond/

      Also wonderful the thing you caught how Becky truly went against her instincts of keeping it light and instead made sure to make a healthy decision. You don’t need whatever scraps ToeDad threw you any longer, Becky. You are free.

    2. Eyebrow

      Becky’s white-knuckled grip on the granola bar in panel 2 is a lovely clue about her suppressed emotional state here.

      1. Cerberus

        Ah, shit, I missed that. That’s an amazing detail.

    3. Orion Fury

      Thank you, I needed a bit of help parsing out the memory in the last panel. Alt Text helped too, once I realized it was a euphemism.

  43. Saaaam

    Jocelyn knows a lot about document ascertaining for a good reason

    1. Cerberus

      Jocelyne’s making plans…

      I wonder how far along she is. I have a sneaking suspicion that all she has left is building up the emotional courage to make the break, grabbing some last few treasured momentos from home, and getting just a little more financially stable and settled. And that if she were to “snap” and say that which she can never take back, she’s got enough lined up that she’d mostly land back on her feet.

      1. Bagge

        I’m sure “Josh” has brought with him his belongings a few at the time during every family visit.

      2. sjmcc13

        I think finances are probably his biggest hurdle left.
        He is pretty much a starving artist, and probably can not afford the risk of financial distress. We can be pretty certain the one brother we have met would be no help, do not know about his parents (Hank has displayed some promise, but so far Carol is the opposite), and Joyce is just starting university.

        1. Cerberus

          Yeah, the finances are a scary one and I imagine one of the heavier ones of the three for her. When I decided to stop fighting for my parents’ love and just accept my disownment, I was in dire financial straits. And that was a huge gamble that only barely worked out in time (got a better job literally a month before I would have had to become homeless).

          I can definitely feel Jocelyne trying to “get it right” and minimize the fallout, but I think when she makes her decision it will not be at the most convenient time, but just the time where she can’t take suffering the dysphoria for the illusion of a family she’s understanding more and more to not have. So, while the financial stuff is probably weighing the most on her, getting mentally ready to make the break may be the actual real hurdle for her.

  44. Idontcarenomore

    She’s in an odd situation. She’s leaving the home she grew up in, and going….Where? She has no home, no possessions, little money.

    On the other hand, she has good friends, and a temp. room, and the doc’s she needs to get started. Her father is out of her life.

    With her attitude she is going to be fine.
    What they need to do is get the Hell out of there while they can.

  45. Romanticide

    I am guessing Becky’s mom had untreated depression, considering there are many stories of christian fundamentalist families. It could guess that she felt guilty or a failure for feeling down at times and didn’t ever went to a psychologist or psyquiatrist.

    1. Cerberus

      Well, she wouldn’t seek that type of care, because that would be admitting that she didn’t fully put her trust in Jesus Christ and thus was showing her weak sinful heart and turning away from the Lord.

      Being a good housewife, then, she would instead suffer in silence until it all became too unbearable and hard.

      1. SundaesChild

        This. It’s not even solely a fundementalist idea, either: the extremely conservative will call psychology the devil’s work/dark magic, but even many “mainline” pastors will tell you that any type of counseling other than pastoral care is liberal/atheistic indoctrination. The first reaction to depression is some combination of ” have you been praying?” and “you should practice more gratitude;” anxiety is boiled down to worrying, which is, of course, a sin.

  46. linkman0596

    that last panel, seeing toedad, who always tries to present himself as some big intimidating all knowing authority figure, just broken and vulnerable like that. Makes me think that that’s something becky needed, just one memory of her dad as a lonely crushed person clinging to whatever hope he needed to in order to keep going. she may never be able to forgive him, but maybe with this she can make her own peace with him.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      I agree.  It’s kind of like the line in “Field of Dreams” when the main character admitted that he regretted the fact that he and his dad, who had been on the outs with each other over something he (the character) had said —

      “Anyway, when l was 17, l packed my things, said something awful, and left.  After a while, l wanted to come home, but l didn’t know how.  Made it back for the funeral, though.”
      “What was the awful thing you said?  To your father?”
      “Oh.  l said l could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal.”
      “Who was his hero?”
      “Shoeless Joe Jackson.”
      “You knew he wasn’t a criminal.  Then why did you say it?”
      “l was 17.
      The son of a bongo died before l could take it back.”

  47. Isaac Rader

    So, I’ve seen people saying that Becky’s mom ATTEMPTED suicide.
    I don’t think that was necessarily an ATTEMPT given the situation in final panel here, if you know what I mean.

    1. Cerberus

      Yeah, I’ve got at least a half suspicion that that attempt was a bit more completed than most.

    2. figureaddict

      Looks that way to me too

    3. SDGlyph

      If I only had the comic to go on, I wouldn’t even have considered that it was an attempt – everything on-panel looks final and completed. I’m assuming not, though, based on the TW and what Willis posted yesterday about it.

  48. Professor Fate

    Possibly Mom decided to take the Big Dive because she had Cancer and had come to the realization that her faith couldn’t save her. It may also explain why ToeDad became such a Bible thumping douchebag. His faith failed him and he couldn’t handle it, so he doubled down thinking it would get better. Poor Becky was caught in the middle.

  49. Lan

    Wait before you leave Becky make sure you’ve grabbed EVERYTHING not nailed down worth quick cash. Idiots on craigslist will pay top dollar for weights!

    1. figureaddict

      Yea, you’ve got 200 bucks for a storage locker, could have a garage sale long before Toedad could get back to report anything stolen.

  50. Tomas

    Remember when the haters used cry that Becky was spoiled and entitled and getting everything handed to her on a plate? And these kids today got it too easy, that’s what it is!

    No more haircut money for you, young lady! You invest those 200 cash bucks like a responsible adult! You can buy stock options from that girl who has her own room for some reason that we don’t care about.

    1. Tomas

      As long as I’m looking at past stories in light of this one:

      The happiest times of Becky’s childhood were the home schooling. Now look at who her girlfriend is. Dina and Becky “make out” by reading text books together, secular textbooks. Their first real conversation at that party began with Becky asking Dina to talk about dinosaurs.

      “I just kinda like it when you talk to me.”

      What if Sarah is wrong about Dina being a replacement for Joyce?

      1. Bagge

        o.o.o.o.o!!!
        I didn’t catch that. That makes Dina’s and Becky’s interaction ADORABLE!!!!

        OK, so it already was that.

        ADORABLE-ER!!!

        1. Cerberus

          Totally, it’s a great catch. Becky has always loved to learn. She was happiest when she was learning. She’s an academic at heart. And Dina is smart and full of cool facts she was never allowed to learn and can rattle off all sorts of things about feathered prehistoric monsters with all sorts of rad ridges and frills.

          And yeah, I think the reason Becky has such good chemistry with and loves Dina is totally different from why she loves Joyce and has such good friend chemistry with her. Dina connects with her love of knowledge, with her curiosity, doesn’t view her enthusiasm and wackiness as something that needs to be forgiven, and takes her issues seriously, even tricking her awful dad onto a bus and biting him in the forest to try and aid her.

          Whereas Joyce, she loves for her strength, for her empathy, for being the person who has rescued her when she’s been at her lowest moments, whose stood by her when she feels she has nothing, and who will take on the whole damn world for her. She’s the childhood friend who she shared everything she felt comfortable sharing growing up and has been there for the intense moments.

          And yeah, I think her loves are very distinct and that she would have been intrigued and interested in Dina (though probably wouldn’t have pursued it) if her and Joyce actually had ended up being a thing. But then I’m poly and don’t really feel like a person feeling attraction or being in love with multiple people to be a bad thing that is inherently dangerous to a relationship even if it’s monogamous.

          And for Dina and Becky, Becky’s feelings for Joyce will fade in time and Becky most certainly is dedicated to her relationship with her fully and completely and has shown a vulnerability and appreciation in her interactions with Dina that shows just how much she really wants the two of them to work.

      2. Spencer

        I think there is an element of truth to Sarah’s words, in that Becky is still in love with Joyce, but I think she’s dead wrong on the impact it will have on their relationship.

        Dina fills a void that Becky was never going to have with Joyce, and also opens her perceptions to new and interesting concepts that Becky’s been denied her entire life. Becky’s the one member in the cast who doesn’t treat Dina as a weird sexless baby thing who needs to be protected from the Harsh Truths that all the other college freshmen have that Dina obviously has no experience with, because she’s small and doesn’t use contractions and talks about dinosaurs a lot.

        Sarah decides this means that Becky’s only interested in Dina because she’s a girl who’s not Joyce who wants to kiss her, because Sarah is a raging pessimist who can’t believe happiness actually exists. She’s been assuming Joyce was going to inevitably crack and instead she’s doubled down on her inner strength, wading her way through trauma and a crisis of faith and doing so to support someone she loves.

        Sarah means well, but she’s too marred in her own cynicism to see that maybe people can just be happy and cuddle and talk about dinosaurs.

        1. StClair

          Just so.

        2. Cerberus

          All of this. Becky doesn’t see Dina like everyone else does. Doesn’t diminish her as “weird” or “obsessed” or child-like because of her non-neurotypicality and her race/height. Becky truly appreciates facts and learning and wanting to dig more and more into a subject until you know everything. And appreciates someone who accepts her bluntness at times and can press her to be vulnerable at times.

          And they have a genuine strong relationship, that’s possibly the single healthiest one in the series so far.

          And yeah, I think you’re right that Sarah is a pessimist and has given up on love and trust and thus assumes the worst of everyone’s intentions. Becky can’t be in love with Dina, she must be pursuing her just because she’s a girl who kissed her and is hoping that makes her stop loving Joyce. Joyce is guaranteed to crack and will become Dana and won’t at all have her own means of processing the crisis of faith she’s going through. Dana was in a tailspin that only reporting her home and thus having her yanked out of school by a possibly abusive father could have fixed. Jacob couldn’t possibly like her and so it wasn’t even worth it to pretend otherwise or try to make it work.

          She means so so well, but it’s hard for her to fully observe the nature of a situation because her cynicism colors her perceptions.

        3. Spencer

          Yeah, Becky really is the only person who takes Dina fully at face value.

          Amber probably does the most good by her, but still approaches Dina from the perspective of helping her out of the cave of social awkwardness, which in fairness, Dina does usually talk to her so it’s not like Amber’s just going “stop being weird and different”, but I think Amber also has a bit of “I used to be weird and quiet so I should help Dina out of that”, and I recall that she questioned Dina over what Becky being her girlfriend actually meant.

          Ethan calmly tells her everything’s fine and nobody’s mad at her for having a short circuit, almost certainly because he’s had to do the same for Amber, but there’s still that level of approaching Dina with kid gloves. Then there’s the awfulness Dorothy, Joyce, and Sarah visited on her at the party, where they all talked about how wrong it was for Becky to hit on Dina, because Dina is tiny and weird and thus cannot be treated like a normal human being.

          Sarah, I feel, treats Dina the way she treats Joyce. Oh sure, I like you, that’s why I need to explain in great detail why everything is shit and your happiness is a lie.

  51. Marvelman

    They’re going to get caught.

  52. Heather

    Jocelyne is a good big sister type. She knows important things you need when you have to go your own way. She’s got her own plans and uses them to help the new little sister.

    1. Bagge

      Seriously – both Joyce and Becky are so lucky they have her.

      And I also suspect they are good for Jocelyne. Now she knows she has more to fight for than just herself.

  53. Bagge

    #JocelyneNoir

    Some would call having a gun waved in your face a working place hazard. Me, I call it Breakfast, and I had yet to have my coffee.

    “You know the drill,” the stranger said plesantly. “Hands where I can see them, no sudden moves… especially you, lizardbrain.” The goon stopped and shrugged.

    “A gun is not quite your usual MO, is it?” I asked. “A little bird said a vigliante took you down.” This earned me a raised eyebrow.

    “And a little bird told ME that you are not as stupid as you look. Guess one of them were right.”

    “You are not working with the hairdressers. Why are you here? For the granola bar?”

    “The Toe had some powerful backers who didn’t like it when he was taken down. They have made some noise in my associate’s part of town. I’m here to send a message.”

    The implications hit me like a sledgehammer (I don’t reccomend the experience if you haven’t had the honor)

    “You work for Amazigirl????”

    “I work WITH Amaziegirl. It’s more of a partnership kind of deal.”

    “I heard she doesn’t do those.”

    “You’d be surprised.”

    We stared at each other over the gun, an impass reached. I’ve got to stop meeting people like this.

    “So what now, we play ball and you don’t hurt us?”

    “You play ball and I don’t hurt YOU,” the stranger corrected, indicating me and the goon with a short nod. “Someone want to send the Toe a message and I’m afraid she’ll do nicely.”

    “Me???” The client asked with indignation in her vocice. “You don’t seriously think you can scare me with a gun, do you?”

    “Don’t need to scare you, just need to kill you”

    The goon tensed, undoubtly just as me calculating the odds of rushing our assailiant and finding them less than favoriable. I looked around for something to throw, the client…

    “Oryctodromeus”

    Everyone stopped and just stared at her.

    “Herbivor. Late Cretaceous. On of the few burrowing dinosuars we know of, maybe occupying a simmilar ecologial nieche as rabbits.”

    The asailant lowered the gun somewhat.

    “Heard they only have a partial skeleton of that one. Pretty bold claim, don’t you think?”

    “Only one from the Blackleaf Formation, sure, but they’ve found them at Wayan too. And they have both broad, flat snouts and enlarged forlimbs. Dead giveaways.”

    The gun was lowered further.

    “Didn’t take you for a shriner, toots. I don’t want any trouble with your lot. One of you helped me out in a thigh spot some time ago, so I suppose you are how I repay the favor”

    ‘The verenable shrine of the bretheren of the dinosaur’ was a club for the wealthy and influential. Only some VERY selected few were allowed admittance. While most saw them as a harmless bunch of eccentrics, the economical and political power they yield was very real. I swore under my breath for already having set the hour rate. I could probably have stiffed my client for twize as much.

    “Guess I will have to lave a mark the usual way and count on them to be sharp enough to get the message.” she picked a spraycan from her pocket and sprayed on the wall with swift, practice, motions.

    “Wait,” I said. “Who are the they? Who are you sending a message to?” She stopped in the doorway.

    “Someone you don’t want to cross. Go back to your little office and write your little pamfleths, sister. Something is cooking, and you don’t want to be caught burning.”

    And she was gone. The goon unclenched her fists, the parting words not lost on her. Not on me either. This WAS bigger than I had first expected.

    “Who was that?” The client asked in confusing, looking at the dick drawn on the wall.

    “The ding dong bandit,” I answered grimly. “The goddam Ding Dong Bandit. You need anything else in here?”

    She took a moment to answer.

    “Naw, I’m cool.”

    1. Tomas

      Whoa, is that a Sky High reference?

      1. Bagge

        Nope, haven’t seen it 🙂 But Noir parodies tend to stick close together.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      You’ve got the ‘noir’ genre down pretty well, Bagge, but I’m beginning to wonder if English is your first language.  As a former proofreader for a printing company I’m having a hard time wading through some of your spellings.  A person ‘wields’ power, not yields it; and in the line “Go back to your office and write your little pamfleths” I presume you meant ‘pamphlets’.

      Great effort on the story otherwise, just a friendly suggestion to double-check your work before hitting the “post comment” button.

      1. Bagge

        Thanks so much for the comments on the story! And you are right, of course. English is not my first language and I generally hack these things together over breakfast with two kids climbing on me, so I prioritise speed over readability 🙂

        But I’ll make more of an effort and keep an eye out for the worst offenders! Thanks for the friendly pointers.

        1. Kryss LaBryn

          Heh, and I just figured you were on a tablet or something. Your English is great! Much, much better than my French, heh, and I say that as a Canadian (and therefore ideally bilingual, but not really).

      2. Jhon

        I’m laughing out loud as I roll my eyeballs.

    3. Spencer

      Can we get fanart of this? Anyone? Yotomoe?

    4. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      “One of you helped me out in a thigh spot some time ago, so I suppose you are how I repay the favor” – Cue for a noir slipshine?

    5. Cerberus

      😀 Jocelyne Noir!!!!!!!

    6. SgtWadeyWilson

      Awesome! I love the way backstory seems to both appear from thin air and seem mostly plausible.

  54. Reltzik

    Something that just occurred to me, far more belatedly than it should have:

    Given that Bonnie attempted and perhaps committed suicide, that’s possibility’s got to have hit particularly hard at home where Toedad’s concerned.

    And there’s a… somewhere between myth and self-fulfilling prophecy among social conservatives, and especially conservative Christians, that people caught up in the LGBT “lifestyle” are highly likely to commit suicide because the evil resting on their conscience or whatever.

    (Actual story, as I understand it: LGBT community has a higher rate of suicide, but it’s mostly as a result of being marginalized by friends, family, community, and society. Where non-majority orientations / identities are normalized and supported instead, the discrepancy in suicide rates disappear.)

    So if Toedad heard “lesbian” and connected that thought with “suicide”… dang. Talk about triggers.

    I’m not defending his actions in the least. I’m just connecting dots I should have connected days ago.

    1. Cerberus

      That’s genuinely possible and you’re right about the reality and the right-wing view of the appalling rate of queer suicides.

      And the sick thing is if he “succeeded” in his plan and successfully trapped her enough that she couldn’t flee to a bridge to live under and she finally broke and gave in to the pain and tried an early exit, he would believe it to be confirmation of his worldview rather than dark condemnation of it.

      1. Commodore Jeep-Eep

        My money is on lesbian closet case who couldn’t take it anymore, any way,

  55. Bagge

    I don’t think that is bravado or the mask in the last panel. I really love that smile. I think Becky really means it. She is done with her past. Now it’s time to find a glorious future!

  56. BenRG

    That last panel makes me wonder if Bonnie took a considerable chunk of Ross with her.

    The question that I want answered is this: How did the Browns miss that the McIntyres were in a crisis of this level? Were they that good at putting up a false front of being the perfect, happy and devout family or was it a case that the older Browns were too busy projecting their own illusion of perfection to really care about the sudden change in the McIntyres’ behaviour?

    1. Bagge

      I really think they were REALLY good at putting up a front.

      But yeah, I really want to know what Carol knew about Bonnie’s situation, and most importantly death. Because that adds yet another level of awful to her treatment of Becky.

      1. Leorale

        Wow, I really hope Carol doesn’t know about Bonnie’s attempt(s). Because, jeez, lady.
        My current guess is that the Browns were unaware, since Hank described Bonnie as “nice enough” and not “troubled” or something. They didn’t know them well.

        1. Gordon

          I’m betting the only reason they knew anything more than their names and that they went to church together is because of Joyce and Becky.

          Hank(and Becky’s and Joyce’s) comments make it pretty clear that Toedad has been so…charming since before Bonnie passed. That combined with the outward appearance of devotion wouldn’t invite any real curiosity about their home life.

        2. Cerberus

          All of these. I think the MacIntyres are really good at play-acting “normal” and we’ve seen that in Becky’s reappearance at IU as well as her hiding her final confrontation with Toedad from everyone. And I think that was a requirement of the type of sect they belonged to.

          After all, your social standing in the Church is dependent on how well you can present the problem-less happy Godly suburban family ideal. So, burying and hiding any abuse, burying and hiding Bonnie’s suicide attempt(s), burying and hiding how broken they felt would have been critical.

          And any rumors and whispers over his wife would have been extra-incentive to Toedad to even more perform the role of stern Christian patriarch “protecting” his family with strength. And why he wasn’t going to let Becky just go. Because losing his wife “that way” and then having Becky be whispered about in terms of “going off and becoming a dyke” would constitute a loss of social standing in the Church he couldn’t idlely abide.

          There is no gossiping pack of vipers more vicious than a bunch of depressed housewives giving their “all” to the Church, trying to find reason to look down on all the other parishioners for not being as “godly” as them. And it encourages a culture where hard lines are enforced against any form of deviation from the expected norm in children.

          Add in a normalization of disownment and “correction” and it’s a scary place to grow up non-normative and I’ve seen the weight of that in a lot of my old high school friends and their family members. Still have hope that the sister of my best friend will be able to build up the courage to tell her mom that she’s a lesbian and has been cohabitating with her girlfriend for years some day.

    2. AUnicornNoOneAskedFor

      I’m not sure if anyone actually gets notified of these replies but: My mother married an abusive (physically/sexually) drug addict with a tendency to fuck anything that stood still long enough. He broke her wrist, choked me until I passed out, and hit me with belts so hard and so long that I threw up.

      Most of the people we knew when my mother finally left him were SHOCKED that such a happy couple had split and more shocked when I begged not to end up in shared custody.

      It’s actually pretty easy to put up a front that people believe…people -want- you to be a normal, pleasant person. If you tell them that you are they rarely look into it to be sure. And weirdly I find that I actually laughed more when I was being beaten to hell than I ever do now. Not because I was more happy but just because everything felt…manic. Still, you wouldn’t associate a laughing goofball with the kind of abuse that happened in my house, and yet that is what my mother and I both were.

      I’d take relaxed happy any day of the week.

  57. EvolutionistX

    Becky, you should at least get some clothes and raid the pantry for more food.

    1. elizabeth

      I know, right? If she is not thinking right, then maybe Josh (is it a boy or a girl? Comments are confusing me) and Joyce should pack her a suitcase of clothes and non-perishibles. Not sure how the legality of this works.. she is a college student and thus not an adult, but is she emancipated since her father is in jail for kidnapping/attempted murder? He is in jail so who owns the house/property? Is she legally allowed to be in there?

      1. Jhon

        You need to catch up on the comments. Jocelyne is a transwoman. Becky is 18 and an adult. Ross owns the house, which is Becky’s legal residence. She just happens to be locked out.

  58. Raibean

    Becky doesn’t need that weightlifting equipment. She gets a good workout from carrying around all that emotional baggage.

    1. Cerberus

      🙂 Noice.

  59. ChrisHerself

    Literally cried with my mom talking about my dead dad tonight and then came home to this strip.

    That chasm-in-grief in the last panel. God. Too close to home. It took thirty years for my mom and I to even begin bridging it.

    Becky needs all the hugs.

    1. Bagge

      ALL the hugs

    2. Cerberus

      *all the hugs* for you too!

    3. ChrisHerself

      Hugs all ’round.

  60. DarkoNeko

    That smile in the last panel. It hurts.

    1. Bagge

      I actually take comfort in it. For me it reads more as closure than her usual mask.

      1. impish

        Same. I definitely read it as being more relieved at getting out of there.

  61. Spencer

    Huh, I just noticed that Becky’s got her old haircut in that last panel, but she had long hair when she found her mom.

    I wonder if that’s part of how Becky deals with stress.

    1. smooti

      To get super real here, I used to do similar stuff when not well mentally. Would cut my hair and then not realize I did it until later. So. Maybe.

      Thankfully the second time at least, Becky was doing it to finally express herself after years of being in the closet and under a strict religious household.

  62. Charlie Spencer

    Hey, college kids! Instead of crawling back out the window, why not walk out the back door?

    1. Charlie Spencer

      Oh, and the frame was kicked IN, so it will be easier to put it back from inside.

      “So you’re sayin’ if we want to, we can put the window frame back in place, walk out the front door, and be done here?”

      1. Cerberus

        I think it’s because Becky is so used to that being the way you escape this place. You escape through the window. You gain freedom through the window. You leave the door when Toedad has someplace he’s decided you’re going.

        1. Charlie Spencer

          Ah. That’s deeper than I usually analyze a comic.

        2. Charlie Spencer

          Actually, that’s deeper than I usually analyze most things.

        3. Cerberus

          I might be addicted to overanalyzing things. *sweatdrop*

        4. Reltzik

          So, in your analysis, to what would you attribute this possible addiction?

          *trollface*

        5. Cerberus

          *twitch twitch* I hate you.

          (goes on 50 minute analysis piece)

        6. Lumin

          But we love it. I enjoy your commentary on the comics as much as I do the comics themselves. Vote 1 for Cerberus as Top DoA Commenter!

  63. TJCROW

    Did you just make a Dirty Work reference? That is just fantastic. I thought me and my best friend growing up were the only 2 people to ever watch and enjoy that movie.

    “I’ve never seen so many dead hookers in my life!”

    1. sidehack

      Lord knows I have…

  64. JQuire

    There’s been a great deal of speculation about how absolutely abhorrent life under the Ross-regime must have been based on what we’ve seen. Some commenters going so far as to conclude that he was a wife beater and rapist.

    But I’m guessing the family was always conservative and christian…but these last strips make me wonder how much of the Ross we’ve seen is a result of him not coming to terms with his grief and retreating into really toxic religiosity.

    1. Cerberus

      I think you’re right that the death of his wife made him more committed to being an asshole for Christ, but we’ve seen some compelling evidence that he was a pretty big shitlord even before that moment:
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/eatmoar/
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/occasionally/
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/backlog/
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/frame/

      Not to mention that Becky’s coping strategies aren’t exactly new, but rather have been well-drilled since an early age. So, while he may have gotten worse, his baseline was restrictive as hell, controlling, and prone to interpreting any small deviation to his decided plan as a personal attack or betrayal.

      I’m thinking especially of moments like these to show how little provocation he needs to justify violence against his daughter and her friends and how used to it Becky is:
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/restore/
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/deceptress/
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/astray/

      Which, yeah, maybe this is just how he deals with stress, but seeing how thin his margin of “Godly” is and how quick he is to enter that “stressed” category, I’m just not seeing Becky never before triggering that response or Bonnie play-acting a Stepford Smiler role consistently enough to never have been in need of “correction”.

      And that’s kind of the lens I’m coming from when I’m arguing that it’s likely he’s hit his wife, at least once, maybe in frustration, maybe after a bad fight. And that he’s probably violated a consent (simply because it’s taken for granted in that community that a wife’s role is to fulfill her husband’s sexual needs at all times to keep him from being led into temptation and bedding another woman and so she would not have been likely to talk openly with him about times when she wasn’t feeling like sex (plus depression tends to kill a sex drive off a bit)).

      Maybe these never happened, but based on the person Toedad was and how he reacts to stress, it’s why I’m suspecting that might have been the case.

      However, I hope you’re right. That he was much more tolerable when Bonnie was around. That he had some lines that he only crossed when deciding to hunt and kidnap his child. If only for Becky and Bonnie’s sake.

  65. FuryOfFirestorm

    Next panel: Becky pours out gasoline all over the house.

    Joyce: “BECKY, NO!”

    Jocelyne: “BECKY, YES!”

    1. Bagge

      +1+1+1

    2. Charlie Spencer

      “‘Time for a few small repairs,’ she said.
      Becky came home with a vengeance.”

  66. Gvickers

    Thank you, Mr. Willis. This series was nicely and touchingly well-done.

  67. Sam

    Ohh Becky 🙁

  68. TheAnonymousGuy

    Soooo, any particular reason she couldn’t go to the hospital were she was born and get a copy of her Birth Certificate……oh, right, we had to feels.

    1. David M Willis

      Soooooo, any particular reason we have people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about what it takes to get personal documents show up over and over again and say the most ignorant fucking shit while being super smug????

      1. Cerberus

        Geeze, Willis, it’s like you didn’t bother to do any research at all on how the Magical Gumdrop Mountain dispenses free housing and easy access to documents to any who brings the mythical $20! For shame!

        Seriously, though, I envy the people who say that stuff, because I’m remembering the multi-year process that has been doing all my steps for changing over all my legal documents and the over a thousand dollars I’ve plunked into it and I shiver to think how rough it must be to get them from scratch.

        1. Cerberus

          Also, the hospital doesn’t have shit that’s accepted as an official document. The “certificate” a hospital gives is a glorified “Congratulations, participant” award and is utterly useless as a means of proving identity. One needs their actual “certificate of live birth” from their state’s Department of Vital Records, which involves money, time, forms, and at least one form of valid state id to prove your identity. At least for most states.

          Hell, I was told that my new birth certificate was being sent out about 2 months ago and I’m still waiting and that involved a court visit to secure.

        2. Rutee

          There are actually states that don’t give a fuck. I’ve had my birth certificate sent to me like 6 times cross country w/ no ID.

        3. Rutee

          I mean, these people are jackasses who are assuming it’s automatically easy. It isn’t. I’m lucky. I’ve known plenty who weren’t. But it’s not necessarily libertarian pixie dust that makes one expect it to be an easy thing for one to get.

        4. Ana Chronistic

          Are we still commenting on this? Because there’re these fake birth certificate scams going on in New Jersey and possibly elsewhere as well

          though I can vouch for if Becky has a valid school ID and SSN (not necessarily the card itself), that’s really about all she *needs* to prove who she is and her authorization to work–they don’t really even check birth certificates as far as the government’s fancy shmancy “E-Verify” database goes

          [specifying “needs” here as “in order to meet the bare minimum passing requirements”]

        5. LongtimeReaderFirstTimeTalker

          Accredited university. Becky went to” first university of God where evolution isn’t a thing”
          A friend I had in college had to go back to school for his bachelor 29 because he had just found out his Christian university wasn’t recognized by any “real” college. He didn’t learn that until he applied to grad school.
          I don’t know what the Canonical accreditation status of Becky school is but having a possibly deactivated Christian college ID might be about as good as a blockbuster card.

        6. Ana Chronistic

          technically “School ID” could even be a high school ID

          I’m just citing minimums here, tho, TINLA

    2. Lauralot

      What the hell kind of hospital have you been to that just hands out birth certificates with no proof of identity required?

      1. Ana Chronistic

        ask how many times Obama’s hospital has given out his to random media whoevers such that they now refuse to do it anymore

    3. Orion Fury

      Name’s Anon and has Malaya as an avatar. I’d of just deleted the comment. But it also needed to be said. Those comments are starting to get rather tiring, and it’s hard to put a filter on them.

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